Robin Roberts picks up trash during his daily litter walk.

By Robin Roberts, a member of the Rotary Club of Mobile West, Mobile, Alabama

Would you like an a easy way to change the world?  What if there was a project you could start today, in your own neighborhood regardless of where you live?  Implementing it requires no fundraising and no committee approval. You can take part starting today. It improves your mind, body and spirit and improves your environment too.

Here’s the idea: Every day take a daily litter walk. You will be happier, you will be leaner, and your community will be cleaner.

RI President Sakuji Tanaka described his personal commitment to cleaning up litter in the July 2012 issue of The Rotarian magazine. The idea of a daily litter walk brings community cleanup down to the grassroots level of one person and a daily routine.

Annual litter clean-up campaigns take an army because they clean once a year. But everyone can clean up their community if it’s done every day. Here are a few things I have learned from more than a year of daily litter walks:

1. Daily walks improve the mind and the spirit, as well as the body.
2. It doesn’t require a lot of effort to pick up a little litter each day as you walk.
3. You don’t need fancy tools. You can use a small plastic bag from a local merchant and a gardening glove. If you want, employ a grabber.
4. Make it a routine. Make an appointment with yourself each day.
5. Each day, leave at the same time and return at the same time.Consider walking five miles a day.
6. Encourage others to join the effort. Just think what would happen if each town had a thousand daily litter walkers?
7. By cleaning up litter, you will be keeping it out of streams and storm sewers, improving our water as well.
8. You can have an impact immediately — clean land, clean water, better health, one street and one person at a time.

Now doesn’t that sound like a win – win, and a great project for Rotarians worldwide? You can learn more at http://www.lean-and-clean.com/ and you can reach me at Robin@lean-and-clean.com

Best wishes and go forth and change the world.